168 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IV. 



" We have just learned to-day that Mr. Graham has obtained 

 the gold medal of the Eoyal Society, endowed by George iv., 

 for the best papers in the Philosophical Transactions. Every- 

 body was coming in congratulating us on our master's prize. 



" I think I referred, in my last letter to you, to a young boy 

 who was in the place a friendless orphan of fifteen, who learned 

 nothing but his alphabet from others, but has nevertheless con- 

 trived to make himself a thorough chemist, the best I know. 

 There is scarcely a fact, however out of the way, he does not 

 know, an experiment he has not tried, nor a subject on which 

 he cannot give you something. After slaving all day at the 

 laboratory, cleaning bottles and such things, he goes home to a 

 miserable dreary garret, where he falls to his own labours, and 

 works away at the science he loves. He is a most striking 

 instance of the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties, and that 

 you may keep in remembrance one of whom I shall likely speak 

 often, I add his name, William Saunders. I shall probably work 

 with him, repeat some old inquiries, and engage in new ones, but 

 of that more hereafter 



" I hope Jessie and Jeanie were satisfied with my extremely 

 hurried notes, especially as I wrote them before I got Jessie's at 

 all, which tell her. They must write me now and then, and so 

 must all of you, when you can. I shall live upon my Scotch 

 letters, as I know so very few people here. I cannot find 

 pleasure in visiting. 



" I shall stop here, promising you a larger epistle the next 

 time, if I can spare the time ; but considering the multitude 

 of those I must write, you will be merciful, and be sure I 

 cannot make more evident, or feel more towards you, the affec- 

 tion of a loving son, than I do now that I am for a period a 

 stranger." 



" I shall not send any papers to the journals, so do not look 

 for such things ; my Thesis must be my first labour, and till 

 that is done, every other subject must be laid by. Nor is it 

 likely I should write if I had the time, though I have many 

 things in hand ; I am more anxious at present to be a learner 

 than a teacher, and still look to more profitably extending science 



